This chronicle of Britain's favourite drink is a river that stretches back to the sacred brews of the first Neolithic farmers and forward another six millennia to today's megabreweries. It tells the story of our national obsession with brewing and answers such questions as: when did bitter and mild originate? What is the true story of porter and stout? What herbs did medieval brewers use before hops? How did lager get to be the most popular beer in Britain, rising from 2 per cent of sales to nearly 50 per cent in just 40 years? What was a Victorian brewery like? And what are the stories behind the great breweries? The British Isles have always had a beer culture, with beer drunk everywhere from ploughman's hut to princely palace and this book aims to do justice to this venerable story.